Picture This

PICTURE THIS

 

Ignacio visited his mother’s house, something he had to do with increased frequency as his mother was rapidly aging.

She was asleep, when he arrived, so he wandered up to the attic. He hadn’t gone up there in years and was not at all sure why he decided to this time.

He started rummaging through the memorabilia, all covered with a thick layer of dust, until he happened upon an album he had never seen before.

The album looked out-of-place and very expensive. It, was covered with thick, lush red velvet with a large gold clasp. There were beautiful etchings embedded in the velvet of his mother’s home in Cartagena, Columbia.

Ignacio carefully wiped off years of accumulated dust, but could not unlock this seemingly valuable heirloom.

He took out his pocket knife. After several long minutes of trying to pick the lock, he angrily threw the album down.

As soon as it hit the ground, the album mysteriously opened before him. The title page, written in exquisite gold lettering, simply said, “Una Vida”.

He carefully flipped the title page. There was a picture of him at six weeks of age. He had never seen this picture before. Strange.

He continued turning the pages. Each one depicted himself at different ages: infancy, early childhood on his tricycle, his teen years with his prom date, Rosalita. The panorama of his life continued; page after page of photos he never saw before: in college as a cheerleader at Fordham University, with his girl friend and soon-to-be wife, Isabella, with his three girls: Sofia, Victoria and Renata.

Ignacio thought this was the last page, but another page appeared, depicting him precisely as he appeared that day! Impossible! How could that be?

The next page eerily appeared. This one was a photo of him in a hospital bed with tubes and monitors attached to his frail body.

The photo filled him with panic. Would there be yet another terrifying picture?

Morbid curiosity won out. He turned the next page with shaking fingers.

There was no other picture!